Team Building with Kamalaya

Team Building Event with Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary on Koh Samui, 30th April 2011.

Adventure Team Building - Koh Samui Amazing Race and Treasure Hunt

Making Teams most recent Team Building Event was the around Samui Island treasure hunt based on the Amazing Race theme.
Making Teams were approached by the management of Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa Resort, who wished to include a team building event as part of a two day staff seminar.

The Background

Preparation

Once Making Teams had received the go ahead to host the team building event, there was plenty that needed to be prepared before the big day.

Many hours were spent by the Making Teams staff, putting together the clues for the around Samui Island treasure hunt, selecting the team building group participants, putting together the first aid kits and essential materials required by each team building group, for their use on the day.

The evening before the event was spent finalizing all aspects of the event with the Team Building facilitators, headed by Mr Rolf Graf. Mr Graf outlined the plan for the following day, each facilitator's individual role for Making Teams and the important aspects of team building and bonding that we should look for in each group. This meeting was all conducted in a very relaxed atmosphere over Pizza with Beer!

The Briefing

On the morning of the 30th April, the Making Teams Team building facilitators arrived at the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary at 10 am.

Our first duty was to provide a briefing on the day’s team building activities. This briefing was conducted by Mr Rolf Graf who outlined the event to the five teams present. Mr Graf first welcomed all of the participants, introduced the Making Teams Facilitators for the team building event and then went through the instructions in relation to the treasure hunt.

The first task was to select team captains for each group, they would take the role of the ‘First Mate’ one of the seven team building roles, Making Teams have created, providing each participant with their own responsibility to the group.
The First Mates were presented with their kits, which included a set of clues, a map of Samui, and a marker pen to be used to write the answers for the clues.

Also included were the role play name cards for each person’s role in the team such as, The Quartermaster, The Pilot & Navigator, The Scribe & Time keeper, the Riddle Solver, the Helmsman, and the Conjuror. During the briefing each group needed to select a person within each team corresponding to the roles.

Then Making Teams explained how the map should be used in relation to the clues, and that there would be a time limit for the treasure hunt, for each group to return to base by 4pm.

Group Tasks

The aim of the Amazing Race is for each group to find their way around the island, by identifying well known landmarks and taking appropriate photographs at each location. An additional task is the ‘negotiation’ game where each group has to purchase 10 Samui Souvenirs with a limited amount of money, for this race 1000 baht. So, each Team Building group is encouraged to use their negotiation (bartering) skills to obtain the 10 items for the least amount of money as possible.

Once split into their Team Building Groups,(a mixture of management and staff of the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary) they were given 30 minutes to decide on each person’s team building role and start deciphering the clues so that they could plan their routing around Samui for the Amazing Race in the afternoon..

The Amazing Race

At 12.30 pm, each team arrived at the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary car park, ready to embark on the Amazing Race treasure hunt around Samui Island. The keenness for each group to be better than the other was particularly evident, as all the teams were raring to go. Once aboard the four wheeled drive jeep vehicles the race was on!

By deciphering the clues each team building group would be taken to Samui’s most famous and beautiful landmarks, these included the intriguing Grandfather and Grandmother rock formations near Lamai, Na Muang 1 and 2 waterfalls, a Buffalo fighting Stadium, The temple of the Mummified monk, The Big Buddha Golden Statue and Lord Buddha’s footprint, which in fact three out of the five teams went to first, as it was the closest clue to Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary.

Time was of the essence and because the teams had to back by 4pm, each team had to plan their route concisely making sure they made that deadline otherwise they would not receive bonus points for arriving late. This happened to the Yellow team who returned to base around 10 minutes late.

Once back at the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa, it was time for the teams to upload their photos that they had taken during the Making Teams, Team Building event, so that they could choose one for each clue, to be entered into the photo competition, where the picture had to depict a photo task, such as ‘you are the buffaloes’ the photo task for the Buffalo fighting stadium.

Mr Lee Cannon, Making Teams, Team building computer expert then uploaded the chosen teams’ pictures into a very impressive PowerPoint presentation, which would be presented to each team building group, at the de-briefing at 5pm.

The De-briefing

At 5 pm, it was time for the de-briefing to begin, once again this was lead by Mr Rolf Graf and assisted by the other Making Teams Team Building facilitators.

Firstly to help everyone present relax and have a laugh, we decided to show the PowerPoint presentation for the photograph competition. Each Team Building group was given a marking sheet for them to choose their favourite photo for each clue, excluding theirs of course!

There were plenty of very interesting photos that were shown, including those of Hin Ta and Hin Yai and the buffalo fighting stadium. There was much hilarity and laughter from the teams as they exhibited their chosen pictures. The pictures were proof of where each Team Building group had visited on the Amazing Race, so it was simple to check the answers for the clues.

Then, the next task was to go through the shopping from the negotiation game.
Each team had been given a limit of 1000 baht to spend to purchase 10 different items which included souvenirs such as a soap carving, a Thai Demon mask and a Thai flag as well as Buddhist items, including a set of monk’s robes.

All of the teams did very well at the shopping, from the feedback, most of the teams did their shopping in Nathon, Samui Island’s capital where shopping is cheaper. The winning team managed to purchase all 10 items successfully.

Making Teams, Team Building Feedback Question and Answer Session

Our final task was to quiz the competitors on their experience throughout the day, their own roles within their team and find out how they and indeed we could improve in the future. Questions asked included how was your role within the team? Were there any issues of conflict between team members and how were they resolved? What would you take from today’s team building experience and how would it related to your employment. The feedback provided from everyone was particularly positive and everyone present seemed have taken something out of the days Making Teams, Team Building Experience.

Conclusion

From all accounts, everyone had an enjoyable day and a great Team Building experience not only had they experienced working as part of team to solve the clues, each participant in the Team Building had gained important knowledge about themselves and their work colleagues that they would be able to carry forward into their professional working lives in the future. The most important thing for most participants was that they had either made new friends or built stronger bonds with existing friends.

The Management of Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa thanked The Making Teams Team Building Facilitators and reiterated his desire to host future Team Building events.

Making Teams looks forward to organising more adventurous, off the beaten track and challenging team building events for Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary and Holistic Spa in the near future.